Posts Tagged ‘Compensation Disclosure’

A quirk of Securities and Exchange Commission compensation disclosure rules has left Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman at the top of a list of the highest paid executives in 2008, according to corporate-governance research firm The Corporate Library.

On July 10, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission released proposed rule changes for proxy disclosure that, if adopted, would take effect for proxy filings for a fiscal year end after December 15, 2009. Under the proposed rules, the following details have been provided regarding the key changes related to compensation. The full text of the proposed rule changes can be found here. The SEC is accepting comments on these rule changes until September 15, 2009.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. securities regulators are considering changing how companies are required to disclose stock options awarded to executives, people familiar with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s thinking told Reuters on Tuesday.

A lawsuit filed against McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) by a former employee earlier this year shines a light on the lengths to which some companies may be going to avoid disclosing perks and other potentially embarrassing executive compensation.

Finding out how much U.S. corporate executives are paid is tricky, partly because of a last-minute change to compensation disclosure rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006 which has a former top lawyer from the regulator still scratching his head.

In her article entitled “SEC Ready to Require More Pay Disclosures” published in the Wall Street Journal on June 3, 2009, Kara Scannell reminds us that “The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to propose that companies disclose in general terms how they compensate lower-ranking employees, expanding disclosures for the first time beyond the executive suite…. Currently, companies are required to explain executive-pay plans for only its five highest-paid executives.” Continue reading “Pay Disclosure: The Big Reveal” »